Doesn't have to as perfect but Indy has something similar. They let Hibbert, George and Stephenson develop and come into their own not mention actually hired a coach and gave him leeway to mold his team. 2 years ago if anyone said Indy would be a top 3-4 team in the NBA everyone including me would have laughed our asses off lol. The Kobe era is an era of pressure to win so I can see why it would be a very hard decision to do so while he's playing.

Something similar I agree. I have no problem with drafting young talent and developing said talent. Since I'm the biggest football nut I know, I compare it to the NFL where you need a healthy combination of Coaching, Drafting, and Free Agency.

With regards to coaching, we can't follow Indy's lead because there's nothing for us to gain by giving MDA the leeway to "mold his team". We've seen what MDA likes to mold and it's uglier than Jeff Goldblum as The Fly. We have to take the "L" and move on from that mistake. Look at the "premier" teams and their respective head coaches: Indiana & Frank Vogel, Miami & Erik Spoelstra, OKC & Scott Brooks, Portland & Terry Stotts, Golden State & Mark Jackson..."new blood" that has been given an opportunity to shine...much like young players. You ever heard the saying: "Old people are set in their ways"? MDA is not going to change and he's not going to change his philosophy no matter what his lip service(s) may say otherwise.

I don't know what the salary cap was like then, but wasn't MJ making somewhere around $27 Mil in his final year with Chicago? The reason why he was able to go out on top (other than having Pippen and Rodman alongside him) was (no Achilles injury obviously) because he had a competent head coach at the helm; granted, the greatest of all time in coaches, but the keyword is COMPETENT. There's always pressure to win, especially for this franchise, but we're making things harder for ourselves by hiring these league-reject coaches.

I don't think there is an option to get there faster, I mean it's not like the franchise is sitting on a Shaq or Kobe. I'm all for getting to the Finals ASAP but what options does a team with no elite players and 3 picks the rest of the decade have?

Just understand doing the way you think we should means No finals for 6 years or longer

"Blake and Parker are good at canceling each other out till our bench point guard comes in" - Majesty aka Bird Ish (12/4/13)

It's easy to go backwards and see what went wrong. However, the points you made were legit to some point. Gasol could have been a valuable trading asset back in 11 and 12. To succeed you must make changes before you even peak and take the team to a different curve of team success and ring chasing. The front office picked to withhold Gasol, and trade picks to get Nash. But again it's easy to point out what went wrong. Had the Lakers won last season we would have not had this discussion. Now you have to forget about winning with Kobe and start to build a winning team. It all starts with a valuable coach who is willing to be a part of the rebuilding process.

The team has a good chance to bounce back within the next few years given the free agents in the upcoming off-season. We should be getting a good pick this year with the way we''re playing. We just have to be patient.

What I can see happening is that the Lakers use 2016 like they were going to use 2014 before Kobe got injured and decided to extend his career. They'll try to win for the next 2 years while aligning almost all of their contracts to end after the 2015-2016 season.

Considering the Lakers don't have 1st round picks in 2015(and 2017), the Lakers would only miss out on a good 2016 draft pick using that strategy.

The Lakers are really in a tough situation after the Nash trade and Kobe extension. I'm honestly not even sure what I think the Lakers should do going forward.

This roster has solid players to move with the future. If we're going to lose all the way to April which we are.. Getting a good pick in this draft would be the start. Then look around during the summer to add an all-star. Not a superstar such as Melo. Plus get rid of MDA and hire a coach who won a ring before. Get rid of Pau and nash asap.

Man I promise, I'm so self conscious, That's why you always see me with at least one of my watches - Kanye West

Lakers need to start over and not skip the "building" process of a real team. Having a generational player or a core of elite guys gives you this luxury but when you don't have an generational guy you need to draft, develop, keep the pieces you want and trade the guys that don't fit until you create a core worth plug pieces in with.

It's a myth that Lakers don't care about building the "traditional" way. Divac, Eddie Jones, Van Exel were all drafted by LA within 5 years and all played some role in getting to the Shaq and Kobe era. Shaq being traded was a direct factor in getting Bynum and LO. It's all a process. Giving away picks and overpaying guys like Nash was an attempt to skip this process of building and development and it has backfired like no other.

I dont think the Lakers skipped the building process per se. Many teams have won by collecting stars through free agency and while it did go down the drain, all the signings were pretty good, albeit risky, at the moment and i think rolling the dice sometimes is needed.

Who knows what would have happened if Nash didn't break that leg in the first few games and if Dwight hadn't hurt his shoulder.

Brooklyn just did it for this season and every analyst out there had them as one of the favorites.

I think the blueprint going forward is two-fold.

Now: Get rid of MDA and Pau, get assets, tank, get a pick, sign a solid vet at around 10 million, resign some of our current crew, keep options open for 2015, sign a good coach (Thibs?).

In the long run: we should become the Spurs. Having a specific system and a coach in place would allow us to draft/sign guys with specific skills and implement them in the system.

Fan Since:When Magic crossed over the entire Warriors team in like 88. Chis Gatling looked like he was gonna cry.

Fav. Laker:KB

Posted January 08, 2014 - 05:23 AM

Lakers need to start over and not skip the "building" process of a real team. Having a generational player or a core of elite guys gives you this luxury but when you don't have an generational guy you need to draft, develop, keep the pieces you want and trade the guys that don't fit until you create a core worth plug pieces in with.

It's a myth that Lakers don't care about building the "traditional" way. Divac, Eddie Jones, Van Exel were all drafted by LA within 5 years and all played some role in getting to the Shaq and Kobe era. Shaq being traded was a direct factor in getting Bynum and LO. It's all a process. Giving away picks and overpaying guys like Nash was an attempt to skip this process of building and development and it has backfired like no other.

I agree with that but the Melo part. If this team is going to rebuild they can't be spending paper on a 30 year old guy that thinks he's an elite player. That deviates from the issue at hand. Bringing in an aging star requires you to make moves to win now. A lot of these moves will keep LA from actually contending with Kobe here. It sucks but so be it. I'd rather this org take time out to right the ship than to mortgage any more of the future trying to pretend like they can contend with a 35 year old volume shooter and 30 year old volume shooter and a bunch of ok to struggling to find my way pieces.

We should differently try to get somebody decent in 2014/2015 FA, and try to be competitive, whether it involves Melo or not. It won't mortgage the future, and if that fails, we can try again in 2016 FA.

I think one of the biggest problems is that all our guys expire this summer, where there arent any really good assets to be found. Our entire team will be seeking longer deals, which will mess up the possibilty of signing K-Love in 2015, so they'll sign elsewhere.

We should do what we can to turn all our current assets into cheaper ones before the trade deadline and then make a run at one guy this summer - Deng, Monroe, Bledsoe. Someone in the 13 million dollar range.That would allow us to get K-Love in 2015.